ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville men’s and women’s cross country teams made it a clean sweep on Saturday as both Bulldog teams finished first in the Asheville Cross Country Carnival Saturday morning at Asheville Christian Academy.

On the men’s side, the Bulldogs’ top five runners finished in the top 11. Asheville took first with 34 points. Western Carolina finished second with 44 points, while Radford was third with 71 points. Andy Thornburg was the Dogs top runner as he finished in third place.

On the women’s side, Melanie Kulesz finished in second place to help the Bulldogs take first place. She led a strong Asheville effort that had five Bulldogs finishing in the top eight. The Bulldog women easily finished first with 25 points as Wofford took second with 84 points and WCU third with 88 points.

“I’m really pleased with today’s performance by both teams,” stated Bulldog coach Jesse Norman. “Both teams ran great tactical races and for the most part followed the game-plan to perfection.”

The men’s race was held first. Travis Alfaro from Western Carolina took first place in the event with a time of 18:54 over the 6K course. Ryan Farnan of Radford was second at 18:58.

Thornburg became the Bulldog finishers with his third-place finish at a time of 19:06. Michael McClay of Radford (19:12) came in fourth.